Department of French
Department of French

Two Essay Contests - Opportunity to win up to $5000.

Please consider submitting essays for these two essay contests we have in the UVa French Department: you can win as much as $5000!

MAAS ESSAY

  • Deadline: February 28, 2022. Please email the document to the administrative coordinator by 12pm (noon).
  • Who is eligible? All undergraduate students at the University who are not native speakers of French
  • Format: The length of the essay should be between 2000 and 2500 words in French, about six to eight pages double-spaced.
  • Topic: Any subject concerning Franco-American relations, broadly interpreted to be any topic of a comparative nature dealing with the language, culture, politics, society, business (or some similar or allied subject) of the United States and of France or any French-speaking nation or region. Essays are to be entirely the work of the participant; research materials must be referenced. It should be original research, not an adapted course paper.
  • This year, all topics comparing France and the United States are welcome, but we especially encourage essays that deal with the subject of freedom, race, and inequality in the US and in France.
  • Prize: the first-place winner will receive $5000 for French studies (travel to a French-speaking country, per diem expenses, etc.) Depending on the prize committee’s judgment, other top candidates will also receive money for French studies, ranging from $100 to $4500.
  • For more details, have a look at https://french.as.virginia.edu/undergraduate under “Awards and Honors.”

HUGH DAVIDSON PRIZE

  • Deadline: February 28, 2022. Please email the document to the administrative coordinator by 12pm (noon).
  • Format: Each essay will be between 2000 and 3000 words in French, double-spaced in Times New Roman font (8-12 pages), and saved as a PDF file.
  • Who is eligible? All undergraduate students at the University who are not native speakers of French.
  • Topic: Any topic concerning French writings prior to the year 1800 will be eligible. The essays submitted to this competition may be based on graded work for a course or written as original essays. We encourage you to ask the professor of the course how to improve or develop the paper into an essay.
  • Prize: the winner will receive $500.
  • For more details, have a look at https://french.as.virginia.edu/undergraduate under “Awards and Honors.”